Just five years ago I spotted an online article about the web domain Whisky.com selling for $3.1 Million. As an Irish Whiskey Aficionado, I immediately began to wonder who owns the web domain IrishWhiskey.Com? I tracked down the domain owner (a gentleman!) who was interested in selling the domain.

I immediately alerted all of the then leading Irish Whiskey companies that this valuable domain; in effect the digital brand of the Irish Whiskey industry was available to the first buyer and should, without further delay, be bought and secured for Ireland and the Irish Whiskey sector.

Despite a year of lobbying, I failed to capture the interest of either the Irish Whiskey sector under their then new umbrella organisation, or any of the larger Irish whiskey distilleries who would have had the financial means to immediately buy and secure the domain for Ireland.

Eventually out of a mix of frustration and love of Irish whiskey, I put my own money where my mouth was and negotiated the sale of this key web domain to myself for a very large sum of money. I happily paid for IrishWhiskey.com out of my own personal resources.

Despite the significant cost, I have never for an instant regretted my course of action.

I went on to develop IrishWhiskey.com into a truly international multi-lingual online portal and blog showcasing all that is best about Irish Whiskey to an international audience.

We have also had great success and fun with our launch two years ago of International Irish Whiskey Day on the 3rd March (3/3) each year.

Visitor traffic on IrishWhiskey.com has increased steadily and exponentially each year which led to having to move the site to an Enterprise level server earlier this year. Despite the long hours and personal cost, it has been one of the best, albeit riskiest decisions that I have ever made in made in my life.

Thank you to all of my many readers and whiskey industry friends for sharing your incredible support and friendship on this wonderful adventure.

Days like today which recognise the good that the IrishWhiskey.com domain is now doing in support of the Irish Whiskey sector make it all worth while.

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